I was telling my friend (and airport ride) about the wedding I was in this weekend, and said something to the effect of "I don't know why I always cry at weddings!" and she said, rather matter-of-factly, "I always cry at weddings. It's an image of the Kingdom."
Well, fine, if you want to be all philosophical and theological and metaphorical and all sorts of other -icals about it. And, totally right. I hate it when she does that.
I've been thinking about this image over and over again today, and while I know God uses the images of a wedding and a bridegroom and bride to describe the coming of the Kingdom and Jesus and the Church, I was struggling a bit. Marriage, as near as I can tell, looks tough. Two people make things more complicated rather than less. Separate personalities, desires, and modi operandi create conflict at various points. The coming of the Kingdom, as near I can tell, is supposed to be awesome. And so is marriage, from what I hear, but I also hear a lot about the difficult, challenging aspects of that institution. Not so much with the Kingdom of God. But wait- yes so much with the Kingdom of God. In fact, that's nearly all I hear about the Kingdom of God. This already-and-not-yet paradox that is at odds with just about every aspect of our culture and society is mostly difficult and challenging and complex. And yes, awesome. But when I really think about it, word on the street is that acknowledging the reality of God's Kingdom in the midst of the reality sin has created in our world is a tough job requiring a lot of grace and faith and hard work. When I describe it that way, it does sound a lot like marriage. Maybe God knew what He was talking about metaphorically after all.
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